A little bit of everything and a lot of nothing: images and stories to take us on an eclectic journey. . . . . . CLICK ON THE HEADING FOR THE "SOURCE" OF THE ARTICLE AND CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW FOR PHOTOGRAPHER. CLICK ON IMAGES FOR A LARGER VERSION.

Their
simmering relationship has been the subject of much speculation over
the past few months, and it becomes official when Justice League #12
hits comic-book stores on Wednesday (Aug. 29). The issue's cover depicts
the two iconic DC heroes in an embrace, their lips nearly touching.
Inside, they reveal it's not a tease: That looks like one pretty
passionate kiss.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Energetic 'Hermano' scores

The Venezuelan film "Hermano" tells a familiar story of slum-born
wishes and possible escape, but with a bristling visual energy.

Director
Marcel Rasquin's debut feature, which he wrote with Rohan Jones,
introduces us to soccer-playing youths Julio (Eliu Armas) — tall, tough
and captain of his barrio's team — and his more withdrawn younger sib
Daniel (Fernando Moreno). Adopted as a wailing baby after being
abandoned in a pile of garbage, Daniel's grown into a serious-minded
16-year-old field phenom.

When a Caracas Football Club scout
offers a life-changing tryout to the brothers, the trappings of their
lives come into sharp focus, especially when violent tragedy befalls the
family at the same time and threatens to split apart Julio and Daniel.

What exacerbates the strain
is both Julio's fealty to a local criminal boss, and the shaky peace
Daniel tries to keep long enough to make their professional soccer
dreams come true.

Rasquin's approach is simple and kinetic, tied
emotionally to the pleasures of close bonds and the anguish of goals
derailed, but expansive enough visually to capture barrio life in both
its claustrophobia and its communal openness. The acting, largely
naturalistic, is also a plus.

"Hermano" is well-trod acreage, but there's a vitality here that's easy to appreciate.

An award-winning feature documentary directed
by Lisa Klein and Doug Blush, following extraordinary people living,
struggling and succeeding with bipolar disorder. OPENING IN NEW YORK AND LA FOR A
FULL WEEK

$64-million performance hall coming to Orange's Chapman University

A new $64-million performance hall is coming to the campus of Chapman
University in Orange County. The multi-purpose space is expected to
begin construction in early 2013 with a completion set for fall 2015,
according to William Hall, dean of the school's College of Performing
Arts.

The new space will have a capacity of 1,050 seats and will
be built to accommodate various types of performances, including theater
and classical music. The private university has hired famed acoustician
Yasuhisa Toyota, who also worked on Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Shown above is a rendering of the exterior of the planned Center for the Arts at Chapman University.

As a doctoral student at what is now Claremont Graduate University, Marvin W.
Meyer (1948-2012) and his mentor, James Robinson, who founded the Institute for
Antiquity and Christianity there, were part of a team that prepared some
4th century papyrus manuscripts known as the Nag Hamadi Library for
publication in 1978.

The ancient Gnostic texts, which had been
hidden in a jar buried by monks hoping to preserve them from
destruction, provided alternative perspectives on Jesus that were hailed
as significant additions to the understanding of the formative years of
Christianity.

Robinson went on to become one of the world's great
New Testament experts, and railed against scholars who tried to
restrict access to biblical texts. Meyer received his doctorate and soon
established himself as one of the foremost experts on Gnosticism and
early Christianity.

In June 2005, he was tapped by representatives
of the National Geographic Society to help translate what it said was
an important Gnostic text. But Meyer had to sign a confidentiality oath
before they would even say what it was.

"I told them the offer was
quite irregular," Meyer recalled in an interview. "They said, 'You
won't be disappointed.' So I signed."

Meyer learned that the
society had the only known copy of the Gospel of Judas, a Coptic
translation from the original Greek that had been the subject of
tantalizing rumors but had never surfaced publicly.
He helped the
society's team translate the Coptic into English, then traveled to Egypt
to film a made-for-TV documentary about the discovery. He was prepped
for a publicity tour that would have him for the first time traveling by
limousine and staying in ritzy hotels.

"We used to laugh about
all that because he was just as happy flopping out in flea-bag hotels in
remote corners of the world," his wife recalled. "But he was excited
about the opportunities that being on a world stage provided in terms of
sharing his work on a scale that he never thought possible."

In
Meyer's view, the gospel portrayed Judas as a hero, not a villain, for
betraying Jesus. Instead, Judas acted on Jesus' orders and betrayed him
to set in motion the Crucifixion. In the gospel, Jesus confides to
Judas: "Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of
the kingdom. It is possible for you to reach it, but you will grieve a
great deal."

In September 2005, Meyer let it slip to Robinson that
he knew a lot about the long-rumored Gospel of Judas but couldn't talk
about it. After Robinson demanded to know more, Meyer responded in a
terse e-mail: "I'm sorry, but I must say, no comment. Marv."

As
the publication of Meyer's "The Gospel of Judas" neared in 2006,
Robinson was asked by a publisher to write his own Judas book, which he
finished in a month. Rushed to print, Robinson's "The Secrets of Judas"
criticized the National Geographic Society for withholding the gospel
from other scholars.

Meyer, however, argued that publishing the
gospel through National Geographic brought an important obscure text to
the greatest number of people in the shortest amount of time.
Through it all, the mentor and protege remained friends.

Michael J. Fox turns his life into sitcom

NBC won an intense bidding war to bring the former “Family Ties” star home to the peacock network.

Fox
will star in a comedy that draws inspiration from his own life. He’ll
play a husband and father of three in New York City dealing with family,
career and Parkinson’s. Fox was diagnosed with the disease in 1991.

As the most decorated player in English football history, Ryan Giggs was an obvious choice for Icons Legend of the Week #5.

In a glittering career that has spanned two decades at the very top; the Manchester United
winger-turned-playmaker has won just about every trophy going in club
football. I mean talk about staying power, back when Giggs won his first
trophy it was known as the Rumbelows Cup.

He turns 38 in November, and he is now entering his 21st
season with Manchester United. Since that League Cup win in 1992, the
Welsh Wizard has added 12 Premier League titles, four FA Cups, and two
Champions League medals to his bourgeoning CV. Throw in eight Community
Shields, three more League Cups and a FIFA Club World Cup and you still
haven't covered it. Icons.com

Morris
Dees is America's foremost crusader against hate crimes.
He co-founded the Southern Poverty Law Center, a
nonprofit group of lawyers that specializes in
civil-rights violations and racially motivated crimes. The center exposes and undermines American hate groups,
ranging from the Ku Klux Klan to anti-government
militias.

In 1981, when Klan members lynched a black man in
Mobile, Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center sued the
Klan for inciting violence and won a $7-million judgment.
The importance of this victory cannot be overstated. The
precedent was established that criminals cannot hide
behind organizations. Membership in groups that espouse
and encourage crime makes the member liable for damages
caused.

Dees also successfully prosecuted and won a
$12-million judgment against Tom Metzger, racist leader
of the hate group known as "White Aryan
Resistance". Metzger had encouraged some skinheads
in Portland, Oregon to "defend the Aryan race"
by violence. Later that day, when Metzger was far away,
the young men beat and stomped an innocent Ethiopian man
named Mulugeta Seraw, to death.
Dees established Metzger as the proximate cause of the
crime and make him accountable. In these two cases, Dees
was able to attribute the murders to the hateful beliefs
of a larger organization, thus "holding accountable
once and for all" groups that advocate violence as a
means for advancing their ideas, he said.

Dees' life has been threatened on many occasions, and
the vicious hate group known as "The Order"
actually planned to kidnap and torture him prior to their
capture by the authorities. Yet he continues to crusade
against hatred, racial injustice and the abuse of the
desperately poor. He denies any status as a hero, but his
quiet determination that evil will not go unremarked or
unchallenged marks Morris Dees as a great man, and is
what makes him one of our heroes.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Two Legends: Phyllis Diller and Buddy Hackett

LOS ANGELES — Phyllis Diller — the housewife turned humorist who
aimed some of her sharpest barbs at herself, punctuating her jokes with
her trademark cackle — died Monday morning in her Los Angeles home at
age 95.

‘‘She died peacefully in her sleep and with a smile on her face,’’ said her longtime manager, Milton Suchin.

Named after California assemblyman Vincent Thomas of San Pedro, the span is a 1,500-foot-long suspension bridge, the fourth longest such structure in California.

Built in 1963, the bridge was built to replace the ferries that connected the port cities of San Pedro and Terminal Island to mainland Los Angeles.

For years, the VT Bridge, as it became known, was derided as a bridge to
nowhere, but that changed in the 1970s when Los Angeles and Long Beach began to supplant San Francisco Bay cities as the state's principal port areas.

I wonder if this "Tony Bennett" can sing? He seems to be able to do everything else ???

Two-time Mid-Continent Conference player of the Year (1991, 1992) ...
Mid-Con Newcomer of the Year (1992) ... Four-time all-conference
honoree, including three first team selections ... Tournament MVP in
1991 ... Three-time selection to all-tournament team ... Named GTE Men's
Basketball Academic All-American of the Year in 1992 ... Honored as an Associated Press Honorable Mention All-America in 1992 and was a two-time UPI
Honorable Mention All-America (1991, 1992) ... NCAA all-time leader in
career three-point percentage (49.7 %) ... Selected in the second round,
35th overall, by the Charlotte Hornets in the 1992 NBA Draft ...
Played three seasons for the Charlotte Hornets ... Won a Bronze medal as
a member of Team USA at the 1991 Pan American Games ... Stint as
assistant coach at Wisconsin (1999-2003) included a Final Four
appearance ... Served as assistant coach at Washington State before
being promoted to head coach ... Received a trio of national coaching
honors in 2007 as AP Men's Basketball Coach of the Year, the
Naismith College Coach of the Year and won the Henry Iba Award after
leading WSU to a 26-8 record ... Current head coach at Virginia.

Tony
Bennett returns to the NYCB Theatre at Westbury for two shows on
Saturday and Sunday, November 17th & 18th. The legendary singer of
popular music, standards, show tunes and jazz will be joined by his
daughter, Antonia Bennett for these two special nights. His new album,
VIVA DUETS, will be available October 23rd.

After three years, Jonas Brothers will return to the stage with an
exclusive one night only engagement on Thursday, October 11th at Radio
City Music Hall. The concert is their only U.S. show planned for 2012.
The band will perform their hits, and will also debut highly anticipated
new music set for release in 2013.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Waverider X-51A

The Waverider X-51A test was a failure. The vehicle was launched
successfully from a B-52 bomber Tuesday over Point Mugu Naval Air
Warfare Center Sea Range at about 11:35 a.m. PT. But 16 seconds after
launch, “a fault was identified with one of the cruiser control fins.”
Then, about 15 seconds after the craft separated from the rocket
booster, the cruiser lost control.

“It is unfortunate that a problem with this subsystem caused a
termination before we could light the Scramjet engine,” said X-51A
Program Manager Charlie Brink via a news release Wednesday. “All our
data showed we had created the right conditions for engine ignition and
we were very hopeful to meet our test objectives.”

The test is a blow to the Waverider program, but also a setback for
the development of hypersonic flight, since the control subsystem
responsible for the failure had proven “reliable” in past flights.

In 1942, a chicken restaurant named Willard's opened in Los Feliz. It was later purchased by Laughlin Park-resident Cecil B. DeMille, who converted it to a Brown Derby,
ultimately the last one in operation. During that time its interior
served as the interior of Mildred Pierce's joint in the film of the same
name. In 1960 it became Michaels of Los Feliz. and in 1992, it became a nightclub, The Derby.

A prized 1936 Mercedes-Benz 540K Special Roadster, one of a handful of such cars by the German automaker left from prewar Nazi Germany, was sold Sunday for $11.77 million at an auction in Pebble Beach, Calif.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Where the rooftops are HOME in Zhuzhou, Hunan province

Four unfurnished villas that sit on top of a shopping mall in
Zhuzhou, Hunan province, have led to questions about their safety, but
city planners said on Wednesday the structures were built legally and
with the required documentation.

The buildings, which have electricity and water pipes already
installed, will be offices for the shopping mall developer's 160 real
estate management employees, said Li Li from the Zhuzhou city planning
bureau.

The bureau conducted an on-site investigation after media reports
voiced concern over alleged safety Whazards and the legal status of the
four buildings.

The developer, Zhuzhou Jiutian Real Estate, used modern designs and
landscape decorations to make the buildings look like villas, but never
intended to sell them, Li said.

The construction of the shopping mall — including the rooftop
buildings in the mall’s four corners — obtained authorities' approval,
he said

24 June marked the 200th anniversary of Napoleon’s invasion of
Russia in 1812. He entered Russia with half a million soldiers and left
after defeat with only a few thousand stragglers. Russians literally
chased him out, killing his troops as what was left of his Grand Armee
retreated.

Rose Bowl Renovation Plans

Proposed Stadium Improvements - “The Next 100 Years”; The proposed
improvements to the stadium, although subtle, will make remarkable
improvements to your experience while maintaining its iconic and
historic status; new press box, less clutters stadium rim, new video
board, wider tunnels, added aisles, elliptical field, restoration of
historic field hedge, added concessions, and added restrooms.
Proposed Concourse Plan - Your time is valuable to us; The
concourse will be expanded from 2.5 to 4.5 sf per person, concession
points of sale will be increased from 92 to 225, restroom fixtures will
be increased from 733 to 1000, while exiting time from the stadium will
be decreased from 35+ minutes down to approximately 12-14 minutes.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Brownlee brothers Alistair and Jonny prove that work ethic and attention to detail can reap Olympic rewards

Alistair and Jonny Brownlee made their mum and dad the proudest parents in
Britain today when they won gold and bronze in the triathlon.

The Brownlees would have liked to cross the line together, arm in arm, to
celebrate their togetherness, the fact they live and train together. But
such familial sentiment is frowned upon by the Olympic
movement who insist on the continuous display of effort.

So, with a couple of laps to go, Alistair moved out in front, ahead of the
silver medallist Javier Gomez of Spain. It was a remarkable run of power and
pace, breaking all competition with its relentlessness.

The result had barely been in doubt from the moment the brothers dived into
the grey, choppy waters of the Serpentine.

Together with 46 other athletes, they were performing in front of the biggest
ever gathering in their sport’s history. Hyde Park was rammed with
spectators, 200,000 of them taking the opportunity to engage with these
incredible Olympics for free without a ticket.

Everyone was invited, but the park seemed particularly populated by wiry
middle-aged men in Lycra, triathlon’s natural constituency. And they were to
witness an astonishing show of strength by the young Yorkshire pair.

After 16 minutes of thrash and splash, the brothers emerged just behind the
leader Richard Varga from the water and galloped into the transition area to
climb aboard their bikes. Jonny got on his a touch too quickly and was
punished with a 15-second penalty he was obliged to serve during the run.
Abetted by their team-mate Stuart Hayes, whose role was to act as domestique
to the brothers.

He did his job brilliantly, guiding Alistair round Buckingham Palace, through
Hyde Park corner and round the lake seven times. So successful were they
that they arrived first to change into their favoured pursuit, the run.
And then Alistair took control. He eased away, his stride fluid and certain.
Jonny, after serving his penalty on the second lap, dropped back, obliged to
run for third.

Alistair’s final running lap was that of a triumphal coronation, the Union
flags flying in his honour. So comfortable was he in victory he grabbed a
flag off a spectator and ambled over the line, draped in glory in an Olympic
record time of one hour 46 minutes, 25 seconds. When Jonathan arrived, 30
seconds behind him the pair hugged in delight, the happiest siblings in the
country.

Starting young: Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee show off one of their very, very many triathlon medals.

With lavender in glorious bloom, the Franklin Hills house of Jamie Schwentker, an architect who specializes in landscapes (Schwentker Watts Design),
and Franco Giacomo Carbone, a film production designer, features
mango-hued shingles with moss- and celery-colored accents. "I call it
Late Wicked Witch," Schwentker said, "which is partly a nod to the whole
movie thing and partly because it looks like a fairy-tale house. Like
'Alice in Wonderland.'"

Thursday, August 09, 2012

The Olympic spirit continues to swell throughout London invoking a
frenzy of fan activity at this year’s Summer Games. Wigs, posters, hats,
kangaroos, face paint, and for some, butt paint, adorn these super fans
as they cheer their champions on to victory.

Fans hold cutouts of Ryan Lochte of the U.S. as they watch the evening
session of swimming events at the London 2012 Olympic Games at the
Aquatics Centre August 2, 2012.

Athens, Greece-based visual designer Charis Tsevis has just released
some of his most fantastic work to date. Created for Yahoo!'s coverage
of the London 2012 Olympic games, they're six illustrations that show
"once-in-a-lifetime moments that happen every four years." Tsevis made
three images for three different sports (diving, gymnastics and running)
with an extra image for running to represent celebration and victory.

Who better to represent the graceful and energetic movements of the
Olympic athletes than Tsevis? His incredible, color bursting
illustrations seem to jump off the screen.

The bitter row over the non-selection of Aaron Cook has caused the
British taekwondo team "unwanted and significant" distractions ahead of
the Olympics, but UK Sport insist such controversies will be addressed
for future Games.

Cook was overlooked for the taekwondo team despite being world number
one in his category, and there has been criticism about the lack of
transparency surrounding the sport's selection policy.

The 2012 Summer Olympics are just about at the halfway point and there has been no shortage of storylines. From Michael Phelps'
slow start to a cheating scandal in badminton, these Olympics have been
getting HUGE television ratings ...and track and field hasn't even
begun yet.

About Me

Thanks for visiting my blog. I hope you will find it interesting. "This and That and More of the Same" strives to show images that are striking along with intriguing human interest stories. The "Memories" blog displays images of family while "Why Ask For the Moon When We Have the Stars" is devoted to friends.